Trustees Vote to Hire Tom Crowe as New Superintendent of Schools

Trustees Vote to Hire Tom Crowe as New Superintendent of Schools

The ECISD Board of Trustees held a special meeting on Tuesday morning, December 24, and voted unanimously to hire Thomas Crowe as the full-time superintendent of schools.

ODESSA -- (press release from ECISD) The ECISD Board of Trustees held a special meeting on Tuesday morning, December 24, and voted unanimously to hire Thomas Crowe as the full-time superintendent of schools.

With a 7-0 vote, school board members approved a contract that runs from December 24, 2013 through June 30, 2017 and pays Mr. Crowe an annual salary of $255,000. He will also be reimbursed up to $6,000 for moving expenses and the District will pay his dues for two local civic clubs. Mr. Crowe told Trustees he will provide his own health insurance for himself and his family. The board spent about 15 minutes in closed session on Tuesday finalizing the contract terms, they spent nearly an hour in closed session at a meeting last week discussing the contract.

“What a great Christmas present,” said Mr. Crowe after the meeting. “It feels great. We have a great staff and a great [leadership team]. And I think this also helps them to know there won’t be a lot of changes after Christmas. They know how I work and we’ll be ready to go.”

Mr. Crowe boasts a 38-year career in education. He began as a math and physical education teacher and a coach. In 1993 he became the superintendent of schools in Willis ISD in Willis, Texas, a position he held for four years. He then moved to Katy ISD in Katy, Texas to become the deputy superintendent for administrative services. Finally, he served as the superintendent of schools in McKinney ISD in McKinney, Texas from July 2004 until he retired in December 2009. Since then he has done educational consulting with other school districts in Texas.

The search firm School Executive Consulting, Inc. recommended Mr. Crowe to the school board as an interim candidate in August. Mr. Crowe agreed to lead Ector County ISD as Trustees conducted their search. Representatives from School Executive Consulting, Inc. held a series of community focus groups in October to get input on what qualities citizens of Ector County wanted in a new superintendent. The firm then pooled approximately 200 resumes for Trustees tor eview. Trustees said after looking over the resumes while watching Mr. Crowe work for three months they felt his skills and experience exceeded those of the other candidates.

“Mr.Crowe is a proven educational leader and the district was fortunate to secure his services,” said school board president Dr. Ray Beaty when Mr. Crowe was named the lone finalist for this job on December 2. “During his service, the district has stabilized, and it is evident that he has provided a positive direction for the students and staff in our school district.”

“The first thing we have to do is get our test scores up,” said Mr. Crowe. “In all my years as a superintendent I’ve never talked about scores much, but in this case we have to. Once we do that then we can look at how we can move ECISD toward being the shining star of West Texas that it ought to be.

The meeting adjourned at 8:22 a.m.

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